Why the feds smashed Megaupload

Oh and to the person who claimed to identify two groups of people that are angry in this thread (one being people who had legit files that are no longer accessible and the other group being a bunch of crazed pirates), you're missing a third category that some of us fall in that are not in either of the other two groups: People disappointed in the manner in which this event has been reported (both by the government and by the media). Some of us appreciate the legal system and that what MU did was not legal, and we also feel for the folks who lost their legit files, but the part that actually bothers us is the apparent reporting bias and the way the gov't leaks details to influence the reader. It's essentially a form of propaganda and it's sad we're already to the point where we're complacent about it.

That's fair. There were several people who posted complaining about the inclusion of the mansions, multiple cars, and vanity plates - all of which was factual, but could be construed as to paint these guys in a bad light.

I think the government is in a damned if you do, damned if you don't position here. If they don't tell anybody why they arrested the folks at MegaUpload and seized their servers, then it's a huge silent conspiracy. If they point out the reason they did so, then they're biasing the public.

The bit about the mansions and cars I think was to specifically point out these guys were making money hand over fist. When the Pirate Bay case went up, one of the things the owners tried to claim was that they were just some poor dudes offering up a service and just trying, possibly unsuccessfully, to recover some of the site's operating costs. These guys won't be able to do that.

The vanity plates is a hint at their attitude. Unfair to them? Possibly, but it's also factual, and very public statements that the owners of said vehicles decided to make themselves.

Alas, if one even knows these things the lawyer for the defense could have one thrown off the jury because of bias. Twain said something along the lines of needing jurors who are ignorant and don't read.

I am not saying that distribution of illegal content is ok, but killing all other legitimate content as a sort of a "collateral damage" in this case is surely not ok and I would like to suggest the course of action in this case.

They should get together and file a class-action suit against the US government and involved parties (RIAA, MPAA, etc), and seek damage claims for:

- Lost content- Lost access to the content- Lost service that has been paid for- Inconvenience caused to those usually served with the content (themselves if it was private data)- Financial loss (in form of subscription fees and lost revenue if any)

If they did that, then the US government and others involved would have to pony up more cash than they seek in damages from MegaUpload. That would teach them an important lesson not to wield an axe so unselectivelly.

Any lawyer that took this case deserves to be disbarred. This is SOP in investigations of this type.

1. There is no standard operating procedure.2. There is even less so when you flex your government muscles in foreign country3. There was a legitimate way of taking down infringing content and leaving other content alone

With all that in mind they did what causes them the least amount of work and expense -- flip the on/off switch instead of having to weed out the infringing content and leave the other stuff and the service itself alone.

With SOPA and PIPA they would have even less obstacles before flipping the switch and that is simply put scary.

Finally, the US (or any other country for that matter) should have no right to enforce its laws outside of their territory.

Yeah, there's no reason any country should be able to deal with criminals in another country. When you're dealing with criminal prosecutions like this there are standard operating procedures, and this is it. These assets being seized by the US are not in other countries, those assets are being seized by the gov there. This isn't about infringing copyrights alone, this is the same as busting up a counterfeiting ring that's knocking off designer goods that is international.

Does this type of trial go to a jury? In that case, it is surely not a trial of one's peers. I'd think it would be easy to stack a jury full of Americans who would convict Germans simply because the jury were informed that the money would be returned to the US. How can we ensure a fair trial that is based on the facts, not prejudices?

What I don't understand is how some people look at Megaupload as some sort revolutionary hero. They made their millions illegally, they had a good time, and the good times are now over. Now you got some poor schmucks pretending to be a part of the revolution.

No, what they are is evidence that the old system is broken.

Copyright originated when printing books was a task for 10s of men working with individual metal letters and manually powered presses. Then came automated systems, but you still had to ship the final product for miles by cart, boat, truck, plane or so on to get it to customers. Now however a single book can be downloaded in seconds, and printed locally. Hell, there is now a machine not much bigger than a office printer/scanner that will print, cut and bind your book while you wait. And with recent devices, there is no reason to turn something into a physical object. The various portable computing devices allow a number of books, videos and audio to be enjoyed in something the size of a single physical pocket book. The need for the vast apparatuses of the studios, labels and publishers are going the way of the dodo, and investigation is just one more spasm from walking dead men.

And lets not forget that the *AAs are about records and movies, not musicians and actors. Their concern is the middle men that have no reason exist any longer thanks to the net.

Much like how radio stations pay a fee to get access to vast libraries that they can play alongside ads, sites like Megaupload or Pirate Bay could sign off a part of their revenue to the groups and individuals that have their creations distributed via those places.

It is funny really how when it hurts the little guy (like shutting down a local factory and moving it to china because of lower wages), the suits simply say that they can't violate the prime law of capitalism (that they can't prop up a failing business by force of law). But if the little guy shows that the suits are no longer needed, then they come with new laws and uniformed/armored thugs to beat the little guy back into behaving.

Lets not forget, movie studios already pull accounting tricks to hide profits from actors and others. And labels do much the same by calculating interest on the advance they provide a artist. end result is that even tho a record is raking in the profits for the label, the artist is left in debt as various costs was added to the "loan" in the interim. There are crocks on both sides here, but one manages to have the ear of the king.

I wonder, do postal services get charged with a criminal offense if i use them to ship drugs or explosives around? And what is different between the postal services and the services of sites like megaupload?

I wonder, do postal services get charged with a criminal offense if i use them to ship drugs or explosives around? And what is different between the postal services and the services of sites like megaupload?

If they advertised and made money off of the drug running services (and knowingly ran said drugs, and made it a point of their business model) yes.

No one has ever charged the post office with murder when a letter bomb is set off somewhere. Then again though the post office doesn't encourage letter bombs (or as the above example, elicit drugs) to be shipped through them and make it a business model.

Does this type of trial go to a jury? In that case, it is surely not a trial of one's peers. I'd think it would be easy to stack a jury full of Americans who would convict Germans simply because the jury were informed that the money would be returned to the US. How can we ensure a fair trial that is based on the facts, not prejudices?

Yes this type of trail goes to a jury.

Its an unbiased jusy which means a jury with no vested intrest in the outcome.

The Jurty is not informed on what will happen with the money. That is a different court procedure where the judge makes the decision.

Please tell me you are in high school and just have not had a civics class. Of course there is SOP. The whole legal system runs on SOP. In cases like this the SOP is to seize to everything in order to preserve the evidence.

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2. There is even less so when you flex your government muscles in foreign country

There is even more SOP. A case like this invovles not just the Justice department but the State Department and embassies. They have too look at the extradition treaties with the countries were the defendant is and make sure they follow the letter of the agreement.

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3. There was a legitimate way of taking down infringing content and leaving other content alone

I have to ask what are these methods?

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Finally, the US (or any other country for that matter) should have no right to enforce its laws outside of their territory.

What I don't understand is how some people look at Megaupload as some sort revolutionary hero. They made their millions illegally, they had a good time, and the good times are now over. Now you got some poor schmucks pretending to be a part of the revolution.

No, what they are is evidence that the old system is broken.

I agree not enough is done to protect IP n this country and the population seems more than willing to make sure the US falls behind in the world.

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Copyright originated when printing books was a task for 10s of men working with individual metal letters and manually powered presses. Then came automated systems, but you still had to ship the final product for miles by cart, boat, truck, plane or so on to get it to customers. Now however a single book can be downloaded in seconds, and printed locally. Hell, there is now a machine not much bigger than a office printer/scanner that will print, cut and bind your book while you wait. And with recent devices, there is no reason to turn something into a physical object. The various portable computing devices allow a number of books, videos and audio to be enjoyed in something the size of a single physical pocket book. The need for the vast apparatuses of the studios, labels and publishers are going the way of the dodo, and investigation is just one more spasm from walking dead men.

I agree now more than ever strong IP laws are needed. It used to be hard to steal the IP of others but now its too easy so more protection is needed.

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And lets not forget that the *AAs are about records and movies, not musicians and actors. Their concern is the middle men that have no reason exist any longer thanks to the net.

Oh see I thought we where on the same page for a minute. What band was it again that hit it big without an ebil label again? I can wait.

Musicians sell their publishing and writing rights to the study for a lump sum all the time so for all intents and purposes the RIAA is the musician.

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Much like how radio stations pay a fee to get access to vast libraries that they can play alongside ads, sites like Megaupload or Pirate Bay could sign off a part of their revenue to the groups and individuals that have their creations distributed via those places.

Well they could do that but I have a feeling they are not going to be willing to pay the price it would cost. It cost roughly 20 percent of domestic theatrical run to land first run TV rights in the TV window which is generally 10 to 12 months after theatrical release. So if Megaupload or Pirate Bay wants to pay 76.2 million for the right to stream Harry Potter 7 come this summer I am sure WB would work something out with them.

If you are talking about loser points then no one in the industry takes them seriously because anyone in the industry for more than a second knows the game. When you produce a movie you set the production up as its own company. This is done for tax reasons and its done explicitly for the movie to lose money.

Gross points on the other hand actually have value. It usally works like this actor starts getting gross points once box office passing x dollars. No one save maybe JK Rowling is getting first dollar gross.

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And labels do much the same by calculating interest on the advance they provide a artist. end result is that even tho a record is raking in the profits for the label, the artist is left in debt as various costs was added to the "loan" in the interim. There are crocks on both sides here, but one manages to have the ear of the king.

And a good lawyer prevents this. Your an unkown artist and want a Timberland beat, a Diane Warren penned song, an expensive video its going to cost money. You are late on your release date its going to cost money. You wanted that lump sum of cash for your publishing rights its going to cost you back end money.

Greed can be an ugly thing regardless of it's scope, big or small.Greed of the content makers and producers.Greed of the owners of sites who allow illegal content to be shared.Greed of those who download copyrighted works whose honor is of less value than the price of a CD.

I wonder, do postal services get charged with a criminal offense if i use them to ship drugs or explosives around? And what is different between the postal services and the services of sites like megaupload?

If they advertised and made money off of the drug running services (and knowingly ran said drugs, and made it a point of their business model) yes.

Make money off is neither here nor there when it is related to shipping sealed boxes and bags around. And i am not sure if any of these sites have ever advertised that one can dump illegal files on there.

As much as I hate the MPAA, RIAA, and BS copyright laws in their current state, it seems MU was pretty well on the wrong side of the line. They profited nicely from their business which relied heavily on distributing copyrighted content without permission, while knowing it full well.

$2 million judgments against individuals, Righthaven, scumbag attorneys blackmailing people by the thousands - all that is utter garbage. My sympathy is with them, not so much with Megaupload.

As much as I hate the MPAA, RIAA, and BS copyright laws in their current state, it seems MU was pretty well on the wrong side of the line. They profited nicely from their business which relied heavily on distributing copyrighted content without permission, while knowing it full well.

$2 million judgments against individuals, Righthaven, scumbag attorneys blackmailing people by the thousands - all that is utter garbage. My sympathy is with them, not so much with Megaupload.

Wait what?

You're sympathetic to Righthaven but not to Megaupload? I need a explanation for this one!

Copyright originated when printing books was a task for 10s of men working with individual metal letters and manually powered presses. Then came automated systems, but you still had to ship the final product for miles by cart, boat, truck, plane or so on to get it to customers.

What does this have to do with anything? None of those people make a dime off of copyright. Your criticism does not even address the point that you raised.

Copyright originated when printing books was a task for 10s of men working with individual metal letters and manually powered presses. Then came automated systems, but you still had to ship the final product for miles by cart, boat, truck, plane or so on to get it to customers.

What does this have to do with anything? None of those people make a dime off of copyright. Your criticism does not even address the point that you raised.

I am saying that the cost of production and distribution has dropped like a rock, but that the benefits from this are not being passed on because the corporations are hiding behind ever extended copyright.

Hell when they can create a computer program that can dig thru OCRed corporate documents based on context, to great boon for established lawyers but great chagrin for paralegals, i wonder when we will see a desktop program or online service that one can toss a text file at and have it proofread.It maybe even be able to mechanical turk it in some fashion.

What i am saying is that we are looking at the death trows of a dying dinosaur. Sadly one that seems hell bent on stomping us mammals into the ground in the process.

Great report, Nate. Wish I was still at Business Week so I could hire you.

wardred wrote:

If this isn't the type of action we want copyright holders - however scummy they themselves may be - to be able to take, what actions should they be able to take? In this case they worked with local law enforcement and seem to be going through all the messy judiciary process.

What actions should they be able to take to go after sites like MegaUpload, Napster, Rapidshare, etc. whose main purpose does seem to be trading in infringing material and doing everything they can to thwart things like the DMCA which interfere with their main business - infringing content.*

You nailed the big question, wardred, especially for little producers like my company -- a producer of dance instruction DVDs -- who don't have the staffing potential of a Time-Warner. Like most independent artists and musicians, we are peddling (and spending) as fast as we can just to hire our dancers, license the music, and produce and legitimately distribute our videos. We are not scummy and we are not making millions of dollars. It's true that some of these upload sites -- notably Rapidshare -- are very good about taking down illegal uploads of our content when we tell them about it, and we have had a lot of other success defending our goods through contacting dance-oriented websites and torrent hosts who we are told about. But it is completely impossible to keep up. We could spend all the income of our company on such efforts and still not stop the theft of our goods. So of course we are hoping for public enforcement solutions that identify and stop pirates. A few of our videos teach how to be an exotic dancer so believe me we are not in favor of censorship. But what mechanism will protect small creatives like us?

This take down has nothing to do with fileshareing. What it does have to do with is that about 3 months ago Mega announced that it would be starting up Mega Music.Mega Music was offering the artists 90% of the sales revenue. If you look at this from the RIA's perspective they could not allow this to succeed as it would completely destroy the current business model where I believe artists get about 10%.Mega was hardly some startup that could be bought out and got rid of. As discussed in the article they already had a massive client base, the servers and the money. Everything that was needed to make this a success. Does anyone here really believe the US is going to allow that to happen? Espesially in the middle of a recession, look what the banks have been allowed to get away with. I'm surprised they didn't just send in the Jackals. This is why they were singled out from the others. It's also a warning to any of the others if they get any ideas of starting up legitimate music businesses that don't comply with the RIA model.

Oh, fabulous. When do the Feds get around to indicting Goldman Sachs et al for gaming and crashing the economy? Leaving the US Treasury on the hook for TWENTY-FOUR TRILLION DOLLARS. Pirates? Movies? Who gives a (*@#? There's no comparison between the crimes of the 'too big to fail' banks and Megaupload.

WHEN DO THE BANKS GET PROSECUTED? This is backasswards.

Totally agree! This is patently corrupt, the rich protecting the rich. They are using the their corrupted power to enforce business models from the last century rather that change and adapt to the new; and they even advertise on the very sites they claim are ripping them , so fked up, its really insane. If the big movie and music companies went belly up, we'd hardly notice and new companies would form with new business models. Smacks of high paying companies 'bribing/lobbying' politicians to get what they want in return for political funding. sick and sicker...

I am saying that the cost of production and distribution has dropped like a rock, but that the benefits from this are not being passed on because the corporations are hiding behind ever extended copyright.

Copyright has nothing to do with costs. It has to do with the ability for a creator to ensure that someone else cannot reproduce the item in question and profit from it without permission from the copyright owner, within certain limits. That profit could be a penny or a million dollars and copyright law applies equally (getting someone to investigate $1.00 of illegal profits is a different story).

If you are against copyright, perhaps you should expend some effort determining what it actually does before you try and solve the problem it supposedly creates.

Ars needs to do a brief article on law and how it works. It might stop all the uneducated outrage.

"From the article:The “Top 100” download list does not “actually portray the most popular downloads,” say prosecutors, and they claim that MegaUpload purposely offers no site-wide search engine as a way of concealing what people are storing and sharing through the site.

Really?I can make this argument against RIAA too."RIAA purposely offers no search engine of its copyrighted material as a way of concealing what they have copyright over.";sNot sure why is this would be a crime or even worth mentioning on a trial though. "

It's called evidence of a 'guilty mind'

>SOPA/PIPA/OPEN let them go after sites that aren't breaking the law. " It's called suspicion and is enough to take a course of action, although I wouldn't trust Hollywood to be objective.

"Verdict first. Trial later. This action is really not defensible. The government should have to prove its case. The mere assertion of guilt is not proof of guilt. "

That's not how it works in any jurisdiction whose system of laws operate similar to the British/American models period. Your assertion turns jurisprudence on its head.

To everyone who claims this shows SOPA etc. is not needed (and I'm not say it is either) don't forget that this action only works because New Zealand is a western democracy that cooperates in international investigations. If this was Russia, or China they would have ignored the FBI.

For instance, the “abuse tool” allegedly does not remove the actual file being complained about by a rightsholder. Instead, it only removes a specific Web address linked to that file—but there might be hundreds of such addresses for popular content.

I don't get it. Why would it take down more than the instance that was reported?

Shuttering Megaupload certainly does pull the skids out from under SOPA, which was a bought-and-paid-for law (but then, they all are these days. We have the most corrupt Congress on record.) But if they can do this to Megaupload we obviously never needed SOPA. It's no coincidence the Megaupload takedown was a day after the net showed its power by hamstringing SOPA. This was our friendly government showing its naked fist since Internet power - the power of the people - of things like the Blackout, OWS, and Arab Spring, have our masters worried we might get out of hand. Especially since most of us now know our government is bought and paid for and our vote is a joke.

Ain't it odd. They can spend years building a case against a lousy downloading site, but can't seem to find one thing wrong with Goldman-Sachs, that caused the nation ten thousand times more damage.

And I'm a Democrat. But this total partiality to allow Any crime by banksters, is not only disgusting and makes a mockery of law, but holds back any recovery. Criminals who are not punished will do the crime again, and sure enough, banksters are still doing more harm than good, even after a giant bailout.

For instance, the “abuse tool” allegedly does not remove the actual file being complained about by a rightsholder. Instead, it only removes a specific Web address linked to that file—but there might be hundreds of such addresses for popular content.

I don't get it. Why would it take down more than the instance that was reported?

Safe harbor requires good faith efforts not to host infringing content. The are informed of infriging content and take down a link but they still know they have 99 more links to that file and the file itself they are still hosting. They know they have infringing content and have been informed of the infringing content and yet they continue to let it sit there.

If all the internal email stuff that they're saying is true, I'd support this. It is a little odd in how thoroughly they've gone after the site, but I'm not opposed to legitimate anti-piratical action.

Why do we need SOPA/PIPA if they can already do this?

Because SOPA/PIPA were never really about stopping copyright infringement, but about eliminating competition, and destroying any distribution channels that Old Media doesn't control and profit from.

The war is far from over. They will try again sooner or later. We have to remain vigilant

can 3 people walking down the street wearing Google caps get busted under RICO?As the silly (and profitable) drug war winds down, welcome to the IP wars (the feds need to get cars and houses from other sources now, i guess)

It's no coincidence the Megaupload takedown was a day after the net showed its power by hamstringing SOPA.

Wrong. Several keys players flew in from overseas for Kim Schmitz's birthday, making arresting and extraditing them all at once very conveniant.

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..Any crime by banksters...

Wall Street AGAIN!. It's like some kind of RETARDED MEME round here. Greedy bankers crashed Wall street before and no doubt will again, yet I feel in no way obligated to turn criminal myself. Why is Wall Street REPEATEDLY raised as excuse for piracy????????

Attention whiners and IP/Copyright haters- How about you pay for school so you can learn to code professional Audio/Video Apps and plugins, you know like Logic/Nuendo/Protools/UAD Plugins/Photoshop/Illustrator/Final Cut. Also, go to film school so you can learn how to write/produce/direct/act. Now give me all the apps you spend tens of thousands of hour working on. For free of course. Oh, and you need to provide tech support and updates. Free of charge also, of course. Please also make me some movies and television series with all your movie knowledge. I prefer comedies and science fiction. You'll probably have to get a job to pay off your school loans so between your day job and sleep you need to allocate enough time so I don't have to wait for my apps and movies. If you support a world with no, or even limited IP/Copyright laws but do not want to do this for me, since I obviously deserve it then KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT, SON.

Attention whiners and IP/Copyright haters- How about you pay for school so you can learn to code professional Audio/Video Apps and plugins, you know like Logic/Nuendo/Protools/UAD Plugins/Photoshop/Illustrator/Final Cut. Also, go to film school so you can learn how to write/produce/direct/act. Now give me all the apps you spend tens of thousands of hour working on. For free of course. Oh, and you need to provide tech support and updates. Free of charge also, of course. Please also make me some movies and television series with all your movie knowledge. I prefer comedies and science fiction. You'll probably have to get a job to pay off your school loans so between your day job and sleep you need to allocate enough time so I don't have to wait for my apps and movies. If you support a world with no, or even limited IP/Copyright laws but do not want to do this for me, since I obviously deserve it then KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT, SON.

I don't think he's ever seen the open source community efforts... or fanfiction, fanvideos, etc. Silly rager.

Attention whiners and IP/Copyright haters- How about you pay for school so you can learn to code professional Audio/Video Apps and plugins, you know like Logic/Nuendo/Protools/UAD Plugins/Photoshop/Illustrator/Final Cut. Also, go to film school so you can learn how to write/produce/direct/act. Now give me all the apps you spend tens of thousands of hour working on. For free of course. Oh, and you need to provide tech support and updates. Free of charge also, of course. Please also make me some movies and television series with all your movie knowledge. I prefer comedies and science fiction. You'll probably have to get a job to pay off your school loans so between your day job and sleep you need to allocate enough time so I don't have to wait for my apps and movies. If you support a world with no, or even limited IP/Copyright laws but do not want to do this for me, since I obviously deserve it then KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT, SON.

I don't think he's ever seen the open source community efforts... or fanfiction, fanvideos, etc. :rolleyes: Silly rager.

UHHH YEEAAAHH........., Because Ardour and Nuendo or Pro Tools are equals in the audio game just like Gimp=Photoshop for desktop publishing. And I just love all the Blockbuster YouTube movies put out last summer. There is an old saying, a cliche really, you may have heard: YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. I know you are not dumb enough to think I was speaking about the OPEN SOURCE community.... D/L all the free Open Source stuff you want, pal, but if someone wants to be PAID for their hard work they have a right to be compensated and have it protected via copyright. Do you get paid at a job? Why don't you work for free? Seriously. What do you do for a living and why don't you do it for free. Isn't food and rent free where you live????? I can guarantee you that 99% of people behind Open Source software (the fan movies and fiction don't count because frankly, it all sucks) have a day job to pay the bills to be able to moonlight for the O/S community- and guess doing what?? Coding the software that gets pirated. Not many ditch diggers or fry cooks are giving away software they code...... Anything else you'd like to be proved wrong about, genius???

This is all a travesty. Of course, Ars partakes in the smear campaign of the FBI, RIAA, MPAAA, etc, etc...

It's clearly time to end "copyright" and the TYRANNY of "IP."'Copyrighting' is morally wrong.

Obviously you never wrote anything.

And with that one statement, any credibility that you had vanishes.

I HAVE written stuff, and am trying to get my work published, and I disagree with copyright. Our Founding Fathers were against it because they knew what we are now seeing: that copyright kills culture, by locking it away, something that is only accessible to the elite. Culture survives by spreading wide and far, via tellings and retellings. This is why we today still have the Arthurian legends, Beowulf, the Epic of Gilgamesh, Robin Hood, the Irish Ulster cycle, the Greek legends, the Norse myths, and so on. Because they were told many times, built upon by subsequent generations. They belong to the culture that created them, not any one author. Shakespeare was a major factor in the survival of much of the culture we have today, as he took what was already known and put his own spin on it.

Will the culture of today's society, where it is locked down, is tightly controlled, and where that wide spread of it is forbidden, have a hope to survive the way those have. A thousand years from now, King Arthur, Gilgamesh, Robin Hood and Beowulf will still be with us. Can we honestly say the same for Luke Skywalker, Superman, Harry Potter and James T. Kirk? Or will they have been forgotten, will the 20th and 21st centuries instead be looked upon as a cultural vacuum, in which nothing that was created endures? Is this what copyright is doing to our society? Can we really take the risk?

This is all a travesty. Of course, Ars partakes in the smear campaign of the FBI, RIAA, MPAAA, etc, etc...

It's clearly time to end "copyright" and the TYRANNY of "IP."'Copyrighting' is morally wrong.

Obviously you never wrote anything.

And with that one statement, any credibility that you had vanishes.

I HAVE written stuff, and am trying to get my work published, and I disagree with copyright. Our Founding Fathers were against it because they knew what we are now seeing: that copyright kills culture, by locking it away, something that is only accessible to the elite. Culture survives by spreading wide and far, via tellings and retellings. This is why we today still have the Arthurian legends, Beowulf, the Epic of Gilgamesh, Robin Hood, the Irish Ulster cycle, the Greek legends, the Norse myths, and so on. Because they were told many times, built upon by subsequent generations. They belong to the culture that created them, not any one author. Shakespeare was a major factor in the survival of much of the culture we have today, as he took what was already known and put his own spin on it.

Will the culture of today's society, where it is locked down, is tightly controlled, and where that wide spread of it is forbidden, have a hope to survive the way those have. A thousand years from now, King Arthur, Gilgamesh, Robin Hood and Beowulf will still be with us. Can we honestly say the same for Luke Skywalker, Superman, Harry Potter and James T. Kirk? Or will they have been forgotten, will the 20th and 21st centuries instead be looked upon as a cultural vacuum, in which nothing that was created endures? Is this what copyright is doing to our society? Can we really take the risk?

Why don't you just post your work online for all to take and use as they each see fit then? Why are you trying to get published? What is your name so I can make sure I steal your book and use anything good in it for song lyrics or poetry? Or better yet, I'll just plagiarize your work and get my own publishing deal. Do you have a problem with that?

Certainly piracy is a concern and one should be able to protect their intellectual property - But, a far greater concern to the average citizen (and not corporations) is the daily removal of our freedoms when they infringe upon corporate profit. In the U.S. (in what is now a plutocracy) the average person almost always (barring anecdotal cases) ends up the loser when faced with corporate desires.

As such, the underlying issue, beyond the alleged 'tacit' approval of megaupload condoning illegal activity, is a corpratocracy that is not only unwilling to change a business model but willing to use all the money, legal, and political power possible to regain control and further monetize ALL aspects of the internet.

We have to come to terms (in the United States) with a society that has, for far too long, equated money=speech and democracy=corporate rights. !^!^, corporations are even legal 'people' in the U.S. We must begin to adopt stances that are not always in the best interest of a corporation but in the best interest of a society at large, and -clearly- the two are not 100% synergistic.

I fear this is only the beginning of not only an aggressive assault upon those who commit illegal acts but an aggressive assault by corporations to create a vastly different internet than the one we currently have. They wish to be gate keepers whether it broadband restrictions & capping, content control, expression control, scaling of broadband pricing, ad infinitum.

Continue to confuse capitalism with democracy at your peril for soon we will have neither.

If there was a 'Like' feature here, I would use it on your post. You have it nailed perfectly. Old Media, the copyright industry, wants nothing less than a return to the days when they had control over all forms of content distribution, when they got to dictate what movies we could see and what music we could listen to, when all the entertainment and the channels to distribute them were under their control, and those who wanted their voices heard and their art available to all, had to go through them to do so. And they got to edit or censor the message if it didn't fit in with their agenda. The internet changed that, it removes the necessity of old media, enables speech and entertainment that they cannot control. And this angers them. They want the internet contained, the voices on it silenced, the distribution channels it offers shut down.

This is nothing short of a war, between the citizens and the copyright industry. And so far, the latter is winning.